Watson plays novelist in the movie that underlines home is where the heart is.

BARRY Watson, who rose to fame as Matt Camden in 7th Heaven, tackles an intimate drama in the television movie Far From Home.

He plays Nicholas Bell, who angrily leaves his small island town after a terrible fight with the uncle who raised him. After cutting off all ties, Bell writes a successful novel, only to be faced with a failure to come up with a meaningful follow-up novel.

When he learns that his uncle has died, Bell returns to his hometown for the funeral. The local townspeople are glad to see the famous homegrown talent return – at least partially because his uncle left him the family's local paper and key property.

Eager to divest himself of the newspaper, Bell finds himself wedged in the middle of a bitter fight over the future of the island – and face to face with the real reason behind what sent him so far from home for so long.

The movie, which began production outside of Vancouver, Canada, this week, also stars Stefanie von Pfetten (NCIS), Barbara Pollard (The X-Files) and Patricia Harras (Supernatural). – Reuters

This week, the Spudniks analyse what it means to be in love ... on TV.

IS Homer Simpson good to Marge? I always think of Homer as a lovable sort of doofus and Marge as the person who holds it all together. I have no doubt that Homer loves Marge but I feel he doesn't always live up to (my) expectations.

My son feels that Homer is the everyman who doesn't know what a good thing he has in hand, until something happens that forces him to learn this truth, which he always does by the end of each episode. But, of course, one musn't discount Marge's instrumental role in the relationship because no matter how many times Homer screws up, Marge always stands by her man.

We mustn't discount Marge's instrumental role in that relationship because no matter how many things Homer screws up, Marge always stands by her man.

When it comes to young love, I always adored how Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) worshipped the ground on which Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar) walked in The Wonder Years. Those two sort of added a touch of magic and innocence to my idea of childhood romance. And Kevin always treated Winnie like a princess. Kind of how Marshall (Jason Segel) treats Lily (Alyson Hannigan) on How I Met Your Mother.

While there's no denying the couple chemistry between David Addison and Maddie Hayes in Moonlighting (Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd), I'm not quite sure if I always approved of the way David treated Maddie – there was a lot of teasing and sarcasm served at her expense; and though she was his employer (she was, right?), he sort of had the upper hand always.

A nice contrast to this I feel is the interplay between Rick Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) in Castle (Yikes, I've broken my resolution to not write about them this year!) I feel that Beckett is always given her due respect as boss when it comes to work, and Castle, while just as mischievous as Addison ever was, is able to show his lady a lot of love. His daily coffee ritual is proof enough for me.

Another relationship that always intrigued me was that of Sydney Bristow and Michael Vaughn (Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan) in Alias. How does one have a relationship when one is a spy and the other her handler? In the midst of espionage, fake identities and sabotage, among other things that threatened to keep these two apart, Sydney and Vaughn ended up marrying each other.

Those two took trust to new levels I reckon.

But then Fringe came along and took things to another dimension altogether. Peter Bishop's (Joshua Jackson) love for Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) knew no bounds, it seemed – neither a doppelganger nor an alternate universe were able to put a spanner in their works.

My new favourite show, Downton Abbey,features a good guy in Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), who at first finds himself at odds with the noblewoman Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), whom he is expected to marry because of titles and inheritances and such.

But the two start off on a bad note, and after a long series of events that brings them together and sets them apart again and again, Matthew is finally able to propose to his true love. He always stands up for her, and certainly always treats her with the utmost respect. Lady Mary, in turn, would never settle for anything less, of course.

Two relationships which I really liked and felt that the men really cared for their women were that of Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) and Ygritte (Rose Leslie), and Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and Shae (Sibel Kekilli) in Game Of Thrones.

What initially seemed like bonds that were so passionately right were tested tempestously and in both cases the men failed, I think, to stand by their women; swayed by their loyalty to family instead. It brought a tear to my eye. But perhaps added a touch of reality to TV romance. – AMC

HERE'S the thing: I think TV sets some unreal expectations of what romance is all about. We only get an hour's insight into the lives of these couples every week, sometimes half an hour – naturally we don't see the everyday, mundane stuff that relationships are really made of.

Every story on TV has a beginning, a middle and an end that's nicely tied up. Life is just not like that. Things don't get resolved so easily, if at all.

Take the romance of Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) on Friends as an example: their decade-long romance went through a rollercoaster of emotions: they start out as friends (even though Ross has had a crush on Rachel since high school) and in the course of the series, they get together romantically. They then break up, accidentally get married and subsequently get divorced.

Ross almost gets married to another woman but says Rachel's name at the altar. They consider getting back together but have a one-night stand instead which results in a baby. They live together as friends to raise their child and then they live apart and raise their child and finally, they get back together again. Rachel even gives up her dream job in Paris (working for Louis Vuitton) for Ross.

Isn't that the most romantic story ever? Yes! And so dramatic too! But is it real? I don't think so.

Are TV romances all just about chemistry? Chemistry alone will never work – Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) on Homeland have a lorry-load of chemistry (their love scenes are disturbing, if you ask me) but look where it's got them. They practically got the entire CIA killed off at the end of Season Two! As Lady Gaga would say, that's an example of a bad, bad, bad romance.

I'm really not a cynic. I like romance on TV. I too think it's sweet that Castle brings Beckett coffee every morning. He's a sweet guy and that's a nice gesture. But let's face it: it's just coffee. He doesn't even make it himself. He goes to a cafe and picks it up. It's the easiest thing to do. In the long term, this coffee ritual just isn't going to cut it. Romance will only take them a quarter of the way. The rest is respect and a great deal of tolerance … will they be able to manage it? We certainly won't see this on the show as real life is way too boring for a TV script.

Ok, so maybe I am a cynic or an unromantic curmudgeon after all.

My favourite TV romances aren't so steamy. Courtship is all well and good but I'd rather see a romance that has survived the test of time. I love the romances on the sitcom Modern Family. Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) may be embarrassing to have around but he's one of the best husbands on TV.

And while Phil and Claire's (Julie Bowen) lives may be unspectacular (revolving around their children or their house that's in need of repairs), they are a sweet couple who understand and put up with each other's idiosyncrasies. There are some romantic moments (like in the Valentine's Day episode in Season One when they pretend to be strangers who hook up at a hotel bar for a one-night stand) but these usually never go according to plan (Phil ends up going to the wrong hotel room!).

Claire's brother Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his live-in partner Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) are another couple I adore. They bicker all the time and they are as different as night and day (Mitch is slightly OCD and Cameron's a little too dramatic for his own good) but at the end of the day, all they want is to raise a happy family. Boring? Maybe. But they're happy and deal with things with a sense of humour … which is essential in any relationship, I reckon. – SI

FOX is preparing a new series that will allow the American singer to bring both his musical and his acting talents to the screen, Deadline.com informs.

Already a judge on the channel's hit TV talent show American Idol, Harry Connick Jr. will continue his collaboration with Fox through a yet untitled musical series, to be authored by Eric and Justin Stangel, head writers on The Late Show with David Letterman.

The singer will play a successful entertainer who decides to step out of the limelight to spend more time with his teenage daughter.

The series will give Harry Connick Jr. his first major TV role. The singer has nonetheless appeared in a number of supporting roles on television, playing recurring characters on Will & Grace and Law & Order: SVU, to name a few.

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